"There Will Be Blood" (SD DVD)

Synopsis

At the turn of the twentieth century, when men of ambition realized that the new fangled automobile needed oil and gasoline distilled from oil, there was a frantic search for places to sink oil wells.

Part of this search involved buying land owned by farmers or leasing it for sinking the wells.

Daniel Plainview (Lewis) was just such a man.

Taking his son H.W. (Freasier) with him so that he could learn how to run an oil company, Daniel sets out to purchase every acre of oil-laden land he can find.

One day, a young man, Eli Sunday (Dano) comes to Daniel's office and says that his father's farm, called the Sunday Ranch, has oil and would he come pay a visit to his father and make an offer.

When Daniel and H.W. arrive, he finds that Eli is no fool when it comes to how much the land is worth, and Eli demands plenty of cash, including some for his church where he plans to be deacon.

So, a deal is struck, and the well is sunk, with oil soon discovered.

The problem is that Eli wants the oil business to be part of his big plans for the church. It seems that oil wells are not the only things sought after by ambitious men.

Daniel is patient, but deep within, is a violent man, and Eli's religious nature will not prevent Daniel from expressing himself in ways that result in bloodshed.

Commentary

I can see why Lewis won the Academy Award^® for Best Performance by an Actor^®, as he is spectacular in this movie. In fact, it is one of the most amazing acting jobs I have ever seen. The only criticism I have is that there needed to be some more editing down of some of the scenes that just take too long. For example, when Daniel is taking H.W. inside from an accident on the well platform, the camera follows him for a long, long time while he runs. Instead of 2 hours and 38 minutes, the movie should have been about 2 hours. 

Technical

Even thoug it is SD, the image quality is very good. Probably a high bit rate on this one. Perhaps it was because so much of the story takes place in deep shadows, which with a low bit rate, would have been too noisy.

Extras

These include The Making of, Dailies Gone Wild, The Story of Petroleum (a silent movie from 1923), and some other things.

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